Delta Burke 2016
Questions by Billy Beyer, Chris Borglum, Dallin Kelson, and Peter Torres
Round 1
1. This work contains a scene in which the protagonist curses Kullich, Kaminer, and Rabensteiner for rearranging Fraulein Burstner’s photographs. While attempting to give a tour of a cathedral, this work’s protagonist hears a parable about a gatekeeper who tells a man “not just yet.” This work opens with an arrest in the boarding house of Frau Grubach. It was published posthumously, against the will of its author, by Max Brod. This work ends with its protagonist being stabbed and saying, “Like a dog!” For 10 points, name this work about Josef K. written by Franz Kafka.
ANSWER: The Trial [also accept Der Prozess]
2. The activity of these cells can be modeled by the FitzHugh–Nagumo equations. Dale's principle concerns the chemicals released from these cells, which have sites of protein synthesis called Nissl bodies. A theory named for these cells that was opposed by Golgi was the reticular theory. Santiago Ramon y Cajal discovered the pyramidal type of these cells, and they can be generated in the subventricular zone. Glial cells, including astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, provide support for these cells, which have specialized parts that take information away from their cell body, or soma, called axons. For 10 points, name these cells that are found in the spinal cord and brain.
ANSWER: neurons [or nerve cells; or neurocytes]
3. This figure’s greatness was prophesied by a Christian monk named Bahira in Syria. After a revelation in a cave, this figure experienced what’s known as the “pause,” a three-year period of depression and extensive prayer. That period of fatra preceded this figure’s “Night Journey,” in which he rode the steed Buraq to Al-Aqsa. After the threat of assassination, this figure and his followers fled to Medina in what would be known as the Hijra. For 10 points, name this 7th century figure who founded Islam.
ANSWER: Muhammad
4. James Tague was wounded as a result of this violent act, and Jim Garrison's investigation into it resulted in the prosecution of Clay Shaw, who was acquitted. US Senators Gary Hart and Richard Schweiker led an investigation of intelligence agencies’ reactions to this event, which was captured on the Zapruder film. Nightclub owner Jack Ruby killed the man who committed this act, which was investigated by an Earl Warren led commission. For 10 points, name this 1963 act that was committed in Dealey Plaza by Lee Harvey Oswald.
ANSWER: assassination of John F. Kennedy [or murder of JFK; accept close equivalents]
5. A depiction of this figure that was exhibited in Brooklyn in 1999 incorporated cut-out pornographic images of women’s buttocks and elephant dung. Rudy Giuliani called that Chris Ofili depiction "sick." Another painting named for this figure features an image of St. Jerome unfurling a scroll in the lower right. A depiction of this figure by Raphael includes a bird being held out by John the Baptist for Jesus to pet. This figure is depicted in paintings titled for her “of the Long Neck” and “of the Goldfinch,” as well as in paintings of the Annunciation, in which Gabriel tells this virgin that she will bear a son. For 10 points, name this woman often shown with her child, Jesus Christ.
ANSWER: Madonna [or the Virgin Mary; do NOT accept “Mary Magdalene”]
6. Leonard Susskind wrote a book about a "Battle" with this man that includes a chapter about Alice's airplane, which has an endless number of compound propellers. This man's book On the Shoulders of Giants is a compilation of several classic works of physics along with biographies of five physicists. Together with Leonard Mlodinow, this man wrote a "Briefer" work in 2005 that is more accessible than his most famous book. The particles emitted by black holes are known as this man's namesake radiation. The disease ALS causes this scientist to use a wheelchair. For 10 points, name this British theoretical physicist who wrote the book A Brief History of Time.
ANSWER: Stephen Hawking
7. A character based on and named for this person is the older brother of Russell in a 1970s cartoon that also features the characters of Rudy and Mushmouth. This actor played a secret agent posing as a tennis player in the 1960s comedy I Spy. On an episode of South Park, this man sings “It’s Snowing Out There” with Taylor Swift, who desperately tries to get away from him while she wonders what's in a glass of wine that he pressures her to drink. This man gave the "Pound Cake" speech in 2004 and played Dr. Cliff Huxtable on an NBC sitcom. For 10 points, name this creator of Fat Albert who has been disgraced by dozens of accusations of sexual assault.
ANSWER: Bill Cosby
8. One story by this author ends with the head of Babo, which now “met unabashed the gazes of the whites” after he was killed for leading a slave insurrection on the San Dominick, captained by the title man. In another story by this author the title character joins Nippers and Turkey in legal document copying before slowly refusing more and more work until he is let go and finally dies of starvation in The Tombs. That character frequently repeats the statement, “I would prefer not to.” For 10 points, what American author wrote “Benito Cereno” and “Bartleby the Scrivener,” as well as “Billy Budd”?
ANSWER: Herman Melville
9. At the Khabarovsk trial, the Soviet Union found soldiers from this country guilty of war crimes. It’s not Nazi Germany, but this country’s Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department conducted brutal experiments on humans without anesthesia. This country's Unit 731 dropped bubonic plague bombs on Chinese cities. Women forced into prostitution by this country's soldiers were known as comfort women. Its leader gave the Jewel Voice Broadcast in 1945, during which this country announced its unconditional surrender. For 10 points, name this Asian country whose emperor during World War II was Hirohito.
ANSWER: Japan [or Nippon; or Nihon]
10. A film made in this country that was released in 1960 concerns the disappearance during a boat excursion of a woman named Anna whose boyfriend and best friend start an affair while searching for her. Another film from this country focuses on a filmmaker who is stalled on a sci-fi movie due to “director’s block,” and was described by Roger Ebert as the best movie ever made about making a movie. Another film from this country features a man who can’t keep his job because his bicycle has been stolen. For 10 points, name this country in which L’Avventura, 8 ½, and The Bicycle Thief were made by the directors Antonioni, Fellini, and De Sica.
ANSWER: Italy
11. This mythological figure drove Aglauros and Herse to kill themselves after they looked inside a chest this figure entrusted to their sister Pandrosus. That chest contained a son of this figure who later overthrew Cecrops and instituted the festival of this deity. This deity’s son Ericthonius was born after Hephaestus attempted to rape her. This goddess produced an olive branch to win a contest against Poseidon. She famously sprung fully formed from the head of Zeus. For 10 points, name this Greek goddess of wisdom.
ANSWER Athena
12. This man’s father ended the Mercenary War after The Battle of “The Saw” and crucified the leaders Spendius and Autaritus. This man’s brother-in-law signed a treaty with Rome stating that one empire would not expand north of the Ebro River in Spain. This man’s attack on the Roman protectorate Saguntum began a plan originally conceived by Hasdrubal. This man’s army was intercepted at the River Trebbia by Publius Cornelius Scipio and would later score a major victory at Cannae during the Second Punic War. For 10 points, name this Carthaginian general famed for his 218 B.C. crossing of the Alps. ANSWER: Hannibal Barca
13. Ionized atoms of this element have emission lines called the Pickering series. The fusion rate of this element in stars between 0.5 and 3 solar masses increases rapidly in its namesake flash. This element was independently discovered by Joseph Norman and Pierre Janssen during a solar eclipse. Four hydrogen nuclei fuse into one nucleus of this element via the proton-proton chain. A carbon nucleus is made from three nuclei of this element in a process named for the fact that its nucleus is identical to an alpha particle. For 10 points, name this element that is the second most abundant in the universe, is the lightest noble gas, and has the atomic number two.
ANSWER: helium [or He]
14. The Huallata is a duck-like creature known as the “goose” of this mountain range. Another animal common to this mountain range is the camelid called the vicuña [vi-KOO-nyuh]. The highest known crater lake is found on top of the stratovolcano called Ojos del Salado in this range. The range’s southern portions were created by the subduction of the Nazca plate, resulting in its tallest peak, Aconcagua. FTP what is this range running down the western edge of South America?
ANSWER: Andes Mountains
15. These works were Recomposed and are included with five soundscapes titled "Shadow" on a Max Richter album. In the last of these pieces, the sixteenth notes A down to C are repeated four times before one D sixteenth note, six D thirty-second notes, and four D sixteenth notes. These works precede "The Storm at Sea" in the collection The Contest between Harmony and Invention. The last of these works depicts teeth chattering, and the first depicts thunder and lightning interrupting bird songs. These works were published in 1725 with accompanying sonnets. For 10 points, name these Antonio Vivaldi violin concertos that include "Spring" and "Winter."
ANSWER: The Four Seasons [or Le quattro stagioni; prompt on Vivaldi (violin) concertos]
16. In this novel, Pope [poh-PAY] gives the protagonist’s mother, Linda, a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare, the only text the protagonist ever reads. Lenina Crowne tries to seduce this novel’s protagonist, but he disavows pre-marital sex and attacks her with a whip. After his mother dies, this novel’s protagonist hangs himself, unable to find an alternative to a culture of mass production and consumerism. Years in this novel are dated to the production of the first Model T, and the title of “His Fordship” is given to the World Controller Mustapha Mond. For 10 points, John “The Savage” appears in what novel featuring alphas and betas by Aldous Huxley?
ANSWER: Brave New World
17. After this man’s father died, his family was taken in by Ohio Senator and later Secretary of the Treasury Thomas Ewing. This man’s namesake “neckties” were railway lines heated so that they could be tied around trees, making repair nearly impossible. This military leader issued “Special Field Orders Number 15,” demanding parcels of 40 acres be given to freed slaves. E.L. Doctorow’s novel The March is a fictional account of the tens of thousands of displaced people who followed this man’s most famous military action. FTP, what Union general used scorched earth tactics on his way to capture Savannah in his famous “March to the Sea”?
ANSWER: William Tecumseh Sherman
18. Howard Bluestein co-invented a Totable Observatory to study these objects. A rear flank downdraft that causes a hook echo to appear on a weather radar indicates that one of these objects might form. These objects can come in stovepipe, wedge, and rope varieties. The strongest of these objects often have multiple vortices and usually occur in the summer during the late afternoon. The intensity of these objects can be measured on the enhanced Fujita scale. For 10 points, name these storms with dark, funnel-shaped clouds that usually strike the Great Plains.
ANSWER: tornadoes [or twisters; prompt on cyclones]
19. This adjective is applied to addiction in a 1988 model by Kevin Murphy and Gary Becker. A behavior described by this adjective is subject to “satisficing” based on practical and cognitive limits, according to Herbert Simon. Robert Lucas described agents whose “expectations” are described by this term, and assumptions like perfect information are used in a standard economic model considering this kind of “choice.” This term also describes the “iron cage” theorized by Max Weber. For 10 points, give this adjective denoting beliefs based on fact or reason, which also describes numbers that can be expressed as a over b and are denoted with an uppercase “Q.”
ANSWER: rational [accept word forms]
20. A progenitor of this form, the “waka,” was slightly longer. The best-known author of works in this form wrote a number of them during a trip on which he wrote a journal titled Travels of a Well Worn Satchel. That author of this verse form wrote one that begins “A banana plant in the autumn gale,” describing a banana tree outside his hut that provided his pen name. For 10 points, what verse form descended from the Renga is illustrated by works in the book The Narrow Road to the Deep North, written by Basho, and which comprises three lines with 5, 7, and 5 syllables?
ANSWER: haiku
Delta Burke 2016
Round 1 Bonuses
1. Answer the following about our new lord and master (unless you’re Canadian), Donald Trump. FTPE:
[10] Trump’s much-mocked campaign launch began with him and Melania descending on one of these conveyances to get to his initial press conference.
ANSWER: escalator
[10] In December Trump nominated this climate-change skeptic and fracking fan as ecretary of the Interior. He gave up his seat as the sole House representative from Montana to take the position.
ANSWER: Ryan Zinke
[10] This creepy fascist served as Trump’s first campaign manager, in which role he manhandled a female reporter from Breitbart. After a failed stint at CNN, he awaits a role in Trump’s White House.
ANSWER: Corey Lewandowski
2. This figure eats grass with the gazelles and frees animals from snares. FTPE:
[10] What wild man is created on the orders of Anu to help temper the crazy behavior of Gilgamesh?
ANSWER: Enkidu
[10] Shamhat, who serves in this important role in town, uses training and skills to tame Enkidu.
ANSWER: temple prostitute[accept, uh, reasonable equivalents]
[10] Enkidu was created from clay by Aruru, a goddess of this quality. Demeter’s semi-yearly return brings this quality back to earth.
ANSWER: fertility [also accept synonyms, such as fecundity; or fruitfulness]
3. These plants are usually small, reside close to the ground, and are anchored by rhizoids. FTPE:
[10] Name this category of non-vascular plants that are exemplified by liverworts and mosses.
ANSWER: bryophytes [do NOT accept "Bryophyta"]
[10] These seedless vascular plants have clusters of sporangia called sori. They also have leaves called fronds, which are known as fiddleheads when they are young and unfolded.
ANSWER: ferns [or pteridophytes; or Pteridophyta]
[10] Vascular plants have xylem, which conducts water, and this tissue, which conducts sugars.
ANSWER: phloem
4. A 1375 Catalan Atlas depicts this man with a crown, scepter, and ingot of gold For 10 points each:
[10] What African king, sometimes said to have been the wealthiest person in history, legendarily ruined gold prices in Cairo when on his 1325 Hajj?
ANSWER: Mansa Musa Keita I
[10] Musa was the Mansa, or emperor, of this West African empire.
ANSWER: Mali
[10] Sundiata Keita founded the Mali Empire after his victory over the forces of Sumanguru at this 1235 battle.
ANSWER: Battle of Kirina
5. The sad six-word short story that goes “For sale: baby shoes, never worn,” is often attributed to this author. FTPE:
[10] What author told the story of an unnamed waiter who argues that the title type of location helps one stave off existential dread in the story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”?
ANSWER: Ernest Hemingway
[10] In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” the older waiter recites the Lord’s Prayer in his head, replacing many words with this non-English word for “nothing.”
ANSWER: nada
[10] In personal letters, Hemingway used this metaphor for his spare writing style, in which he often omitted narrative exposition and relied on readers’ ability to find the unsaid in the dialogue.
ANSWER: iceberg style
6. The national anthem of the short-lived Republic of Biafra was adopted from this piece, which was frequently performed under alternative names due to Russian censorship. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this tone poem composed in 1899 that is titled for a Scandinavian country.
ANSWER: Finlandia [do NOT accept "Finland"]
[10] Finlandia was composed by this Finnish composer, who composed seven symphonies and a Violin Concerto that was praised as a "polonaise for polar bears."